We attended yet another concert last night. This time it was Tori Amos at the Wells Fargo Theatre, which is inside the Colorado Convention Center (map) downtown. I had never seen her before, and am not very familiar with her music other than the songs you hear on the radio. However, Kim enjoys her music, and has seen her before, so I bought her some tickets for us to go for her birthday. We arrived just as the opening guy was wrapping up his set, and I didn’t get to see much, but he seemed to be an early Howie Day. I’ve seen the single guy on stage looping his way through tracks many times before.

The theatre itself was great! For as large of a place as it is, there isn’t a bad seat in the house and even from near the back you still feel really close to the action. The sound was excellent as well, which always makes me happy, and their light show wasn’t too bad either. The music was good, even though I think I only recognized two songs throughout the night. Most of the songs were played with a backing band which included bass, drums, and guitar. I put them in that order because that is how I would rank these additional performers. The guy on bass played on nearly every song of the night, and added so much to the songs. It was really cool to see a show where a grand piano is on the center of the stage and played all night long. Plus we were treated to a double encore, which could be a first for me. Surprising, I know. Overall, it was a good time and I would gladly go again.

This weekend, Kim and I also headed to the Ogden Theatre to see the John Butler Trio along with Brett Dennen. It was a first, for me, for both the Ogden and Brett Dennen. Overall, the venue is okay, but the sight lines can be bad for a full show, as this one was. They have lots of tiers, which are great if you are at the front of, but at the back of a flat tier it is nearly impossible to see. When I head back to this venue, I think I’ll definitely show up early to snag some stools on the tiers of the balcony. Those seats seem ideal to me.

Although this was the first time I’ve seen Brett Dennen, I’ve been listening to his music for a few months now. I was introduced to him by a friend of mine from OARfans.com, where his popularity has grown throughout the year. His music can be a little melow for my tastes, at times, but the more upbeat songs are fantastic. Plus the band that he is currently playing with, are incredible musicians.

On to the John Butler Trio, I’ve now seen them three times this year, plus more shows in the past. These guys are definitely on the top of my list of favorite bands right now, and their latest studio release, Grand National could be my favorite of the year. I would definitely encourage everyone to get out and see this band if you can, and at least pickup their CD if you can’t make a show. For the extremely lazy, I’m sure a track from their album will appear on NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music 2007, if I ever get it together.

Saturday night Kim and I headed to the Bluebird Theater to see Matt Nathanson. Since game three of the World Series was also going on, we arrived a bit late but still managed to catch most of Ingrid Michaelson and all of Mêlée. Both of these openers were pretty good, and both have a song on the radio that you might already know. They would be worth checking out on this tour, or on tours of their own.

Prior to the show, I hadn’t seen Nathanson for nearly a year and a half, but his show was just as I remembered, with the addition of songs from the new album. He does seem to recycle some jokes from time to time, but it is always an entertaining show to see. I tried to tape the show, but venue staff and tour management had some communication issues and I was told that I could not tape. Another guy managed to stealth record the show, and it can be heard here. There are definitely better recordings from this tour though, so you may want to look elsewhere. And if you haven’t heard his latest album, Some Mad Hope, definitely check that out.

Over a month ago, I finally got to my first SoundRabbit show, though I have been a fan of their music for years. I was waiting to mention the show until I got my recording of it posted online, which I finally accomplished today. Their site is currently under a redesign for a big CD release that is due out on November 9th. So my recording is one of only a few ways to listen to their music right now. The other being their MySpace page, which has samples from the new CD, This Room Becomes A Crowd.

Last night Kim and I attended The Killers concert at Red Rocks once again. The concert started very much like the last one, but this time they decided to keep playing after their second song of the night. They played all of the big hits, which are pretty much the only songs that I really know. The band and mix sounded great, and the show was very entertaining complete with a great light show. Front-man, Brandon Flowers, is a very entertaining performer, much in the same way that Scott from Red Wanting Blue used to be.

We were treated to seats inside the roped off FOH section once again last night. Many thanks to my friend Mike for hooking that up once again. Watching a show at Red Rocks is incredible, but watching a show at Red Rocks from within the first twenty rows is even better. This show may have been our last at Red Rocks for the season, but hitting up six shows this summer was nice. Hopefully we can hit even more next year.

Last night I caught another Dave Matthews Band show. This time I traveled out to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (aka Sandstone) with Phil and Doni. I bought a single ticket just a week ago after realizing that the show was during the week that I would be in KC for work. Fortunately, the show wasn’t sold out, and I actually scored a ticket in the lower pavilion, less than 20 rows from the stage. I didn’t actually use the seat, since I met up with another friend, Mike, who had an extra spot in his group.

The show itself was good. Not the best I’ve seen of the tour, but still better than other tours I’ve seen. The extreme heat might have taken a little energy out of the show, from both the band and crowd. It was good to hear Grey Street, Hunger for the Great Light, and my favorite Dancing Nancies -> Warehouse. Phil also got to hear Gravedigger, which was a the top of his list for the show. Overall, I’d give it a solid seven. Maybe with some cooler weather, and a few beers, it could have been an eight. Still well worth the drive out to Bonner Springs.

Full Setlist

I’ve been streaming so much music lately that I finally decided to go public with a streaming player I created for oarsa.org. Essentially we had all of these songs available for download but no good way to play them all at once (unless you already downloaded them all). Enter the XSPF Web Music Player, which is a simple flash based player that takes an xspf playlist. Once I wrote the code to automatically generate and update the playlist, displaying the flash player was a piece of cake. I’m not sure how much bandwidth this is going to eat up, so check it out now or you may never be able to. Just follow the oarsa.org link above and click the link on the left menu.

Kim and I headed to Red Rocks last night for yet another sold out show. This was not your typical show though, everyone was there to watch Wedding Crashers on a screen that nearly filled up the stage. I was floored that Red Rocks could sell out just for a movie showing. There was a band on before the movie named Under A Blood Red Sky. Obviously they are a U2 cover band, but I don’t think many people were there actually to see them. In fact many people around us were annoyed by their performance. I didn’t think they were bad, but definitely no comparison to the real thing. As expected, the movie was a huge success and it was amazing to hear seven or eight thousand people all laughing at the same time.

I mentioned it a couple times before, but this past weekend was spent at Deer Creek, aka Verizon Wireless Music Center, in Indiana for two nights of the Dave Matthews Band. I left first thing on Friday morning and flew to Chicago where a couple of friends picked me up and we were quickly on our way to our campground. Despite a few traffic jams along the way, we made it in pretty good time and immediately began setting up our tents and other camping goods.

Before too long we were heading into the venue for the first night’s show. I enjoyed the second night’s setlist a little more than the first, but it was still a great show. Song highlights for the weekend included “What Would You Say”, “So Damn Lucky”, “Jimi Thing”, and “Tripping Billies”, to name just a few. Heck, I could list almost every song they played as a highlight for me, especially with so few repeats between nights.

Besides the shows, we had a blast hanging around camp, enjoying the surprisingly nice weather, playing cornhole, hanging around a campfire, etc. In fact I slept most of yesterday just to catch up from everything. That included the drive back to Chicago, a nap or two on my friends couch, and then sleeping through most of my entire flight back to Denver. Even still I slept like a baby last night. All in all it was well worth the trip and I always look forward to seeing future shows at Deer Creek.

Kim and I headed out to Red Rocks last night to see another one of my all time favorite bands, 311. I often forget about 311 when mentioning my favorite bands, but I still try to catch them anytime they play a show near me. I’m a big fan of their older music, and still know most of their newer material.

Last night started off a little rough with storms passing through the area as show time approached. Fortunately there were two opening bands, and we brought a cooler of beer, so we just sat in the parking lot and waited for the weather to clear up. And it did, just in time for 311 to play. We caught the end of Matisyahu’s set and even though I thought his show was great a couple of years ago, I think his moment of fame is up, at least for me.

311 played a great set full of tons of my favorites from back in the day. We watched this show from very close to the top of the amphitheater, and despite the strong winds it still sounded pretty good. Besides it was cool to see the show with a lightning storm going on in the distant background. I really enjoy the song “Creatures (For A While)” and was glad to hear it as the last song played of the night. Once the official setlist is posted I will update with a link to it.